<p>This is a little awkward and not very PC, so please bear in mind that I know that. I’m looking for a way to approach Zoozersister’s journalism teacher at the P/T conference tomorrow night. ZS is in the pre-IB program and must take an elective each semester. This term it’s journalism, which is great because she writes for the local and school newspapers. The problem is that the class is a mixed group of grade levels and tracks. I’ve heard from ZS and from someone else that the class is completely out of control like a stereotypical inner city high school. Aside from that being not a good thing, the teacher grades heavily based upon class participation and the grade does count. He doesn’t know ZS’s name and has never, ever called on her for the entire year because she doesn’t jump on desks or get in his face. I’m not interested in attacking him, but I want to find a way to ask him how we can bring the work of the quiet child(ren) to his attention. The sad fact is that he’s a rotten teacher, but I don’t want to fight a huge battle, I just don’t want ZS penalized because she isn’t a desk jumper. It’s ironic that she would be the quiet one in that class since that’s totally not her personality. She says the class is a zoo and she wants to be out of the cross fire. Who can help me be tactful and sympathetic?</p>
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I think this is phrasd very well. Just ask him “How can my D bring her work to your attention? She describes the class as extremely lively with many boisterous classmates. I wonder if you are aware of the writing she does for both the school paper & the local paper. Her behavior style is certainly more suitable for a traditional style classroom, but her passion for journalism is very strong. She’s concerned, and we are as well, that she hasn’t been able to communicate that to you.”</p>
<p>“Her behavior style is certainly more suitable for a traditional style classroom, but her passion for journalism is very strong. She’s concerned, and we are as well, that she hasn’t been able to communicate that to you.”</p>
<p>Oh you are good Stickershock. I’m going to have to be very careful to be nice because he gave her a sucky grade because she doesn’t participate. Hopefully he will be receptive. Thank you.</p>
<p>Zoosermom, maybe we should both write “Be Nice” on our hands before we go into our teacher conferences!</p>
<p>Oh Missy, you’re not kidding. This teacher is quite arrogant and isn’t fond of white kids, so I’m going to have to bite my tongue hard. It irks me (ok I admit it) that she has a 4.25 in AP Euro and a 3.0 in this loser class.</p>
<p>Zmom</p>
<p>Im facing a similar situation when i go to p/t conference this week. the particular teacher is foreign born and has a thick heavy accent making it nigh impossible for S to understand. actually for everybody inthe class to undersatand. and he cannot control his class. </p>
<p>i plan to ask him for independant work for s that he can do for extra credit and hoep that he is flexible enough to agree. that wasy s can avoid the lousy classrom situation and maybe even learn something. maybe this can work for you too?</p>
<p>I wonder where the administration is. My son had one class like this (also an elective), and everyone who did not create a major disruption got As.
This grade represented little to demonstrate knowledge of course content, and the grade was based on how much a student could behave in a civilized manner for that class, and if they were capable of handing in a very minimal amount of work. That teacher is no longer working for our school district. Funny part, on paper she looked amazing (ie: Ivy League education).</p>
<p>" wonder where the administration is. My son had one class like this (also an elective), and everyone who did not create a major disruption got As."</p>
<p>Administration is dealing with the bigger problems of this school. In the non-IB or other specialized programs, attendance is the only thing that matters.</p>
<p>That is very sad, zoosermom.</p>
<p>“That is very sad, zoosermom.”</p>
<p>It really is because the IB kids and the kids in the other houses have amenities, opportunities and staff to take super care of them. It’s the kids who aren’t in those houses who are expected to be in classes that are chaotic. Thankfully ZS only has to deal with it as an elective and next year’s electives will be latin and the following year will be AP classes of her choice</p>
<p>Best of luck to you zoosermom. The very few times (I can think of two instances off the top of my head) that I’ve had to talk to teachers who I believed were irrational or unfair in dealing with my child(ren), I’ve had surprisingly positive results. Those “less-than-stellar” teachers tend to have a chip on their shoulder and need to have their egos stroked. So if you go in there with a respectful attitude “asking” (not demanding) for ways to improve the situation, and then let the teacher do the talking, things should come out alright.</p>
<p>At this moment, I am thanking God for my kids’ GC. If I had to intervene myself in the situations Zooser and Missypie are having to deal with this week, I’m afraid I’d hit somebody upside the head. Also, the notion of a teacher who in an obvious way doesn’t like kids of a particular race makes my blood curdle. I have the feeling that minority kids probably face this more than white kids (?) but there really does need to be some way to handle this sort of an issue beyond the poor mother having to write “be nice” on her hand and take a tranquilizer. Having to suck up to a racist…blech!</p>
<p>CCSurfer, do you actually make use of the kids’ Guidance Counsellor in situations like this? It never even occurs to me to contact the GC.</p>
<p>There are over 600 students per class, and each class has one GC. It is made very obvious to us that most of the year they are “too busy” to deal with us…too busy getting transcripts out, too busy processing course selections…seems like at every point in the school year, they are too busy to actually interact with students or parents (and their “auto reply” to email reminds us of that). </p>
<p>I know that all of these things actually DO make them too busy, but I haven’t ever known a school to have more than one GC per class. When I was in HS, we also had one GC per class, and there were over 800 in each class. Are your kids GCs actually helpful?</p>
<p>Your school is definitely short-changing you, missypie. D had 280 kids in her graduating class, and there were 4 GCs. There are 4 GCs for every grade (each GC does, however, have kids from each grade) - total of 8 GCs. </p>
<p>When my d had trouble with her history teacher, her GC was very helpful. Of course, nothing happened, but she was still good to deal with and she tried.</p>
<p>"I think this is phrasd very well. Just ask him “How can my D bring her work to your attention? She describes the class as extremely lively with many boisterous classmates. I wonder if you are aware of the writing she does for both the school paper & the local paper. Her behavior style is certainly more suitable for a traditional style classroom, but her passion for journalism is very strong. She’s concerned, and we are as well, that she hasn’t been able to communicate that to you.” </p>
<p>WOW! THAT’S AN EXCELLENT FIRST CONVERSATION! </p>
<p>That’s very, very good SS.</p>
<p>My son had a chemistry teacher who he swore hated the freshmen and loved the sophomores. I sort of discounted it (since this kid is not particularly strong in science) until I found out that one of the brightest girls in his class wasn’t doing much better than he was. He’s doing fine in physics this year.</p>
<p>Agree, Opie.</p>
<p>There’s nothing less productive than putting a teacher on the defensive.</p>
<p>You catch more flies with honey.</p>
<p>Missiepie –</p>
<p>When there’s a congenial teacher and a glitch, I have always had my kids speak with the teacher respectfully and directly to try to work things out. This has generally been pretty effective. Sometimes I’ve also telephoned or emailed a congenial teacher to try to figure or works things out. Also usually works like a charm when you’ve got a couple of non-defensive, non-hostile grown-ups problem-solving together.</p>
<p>Then we have those mind-blowing situations in which you’re dealing with the spawn of Satan/clinical insanity/a policy or situation so stupid that just thinking about it makes you worry that your head might explode. In these situations, which are very rare, I go to our GC and if the GC is not avialable, to our principal. Our school has a great system whereby each GC is assigned a group of kids each year to follow for all three years of HS. They work with them for all of the usual GC stuff, and then help them with the college application process as well. Families seem to keep the same GC for all their kids, so that (in the best case scenario) the parents have a pretty good relationship with the GC too by the time the first kid has been with the GC for a couple of years.</p>
<p>Having more than one kid and having been through a few schools (not every school with every kid), I can’t speak highly enough of the way the current team handles things. Sometimes my kid will go directly to the GC to find out what the school policy is on something, or to get the GC’s take on a problem, before approaching a teacher. (Or before realizing s/he pretty much has to suck it up on a particular issue and letting it go.) I feel that this GC is modeling good listening and mature negotiation skills (among other things), and is giving the kids both a sense of being safe and a sense that they can grapple with interpersonal issues with increasing autonomy. There have definitely been situations in which the GC has gone to bat for the kids when things were just too nuts/intense for a kid to negotiate himself.</p>
<p>So yes, in a situation like this, or especially in that horrendous Geometry teacher situation, I would definitely talk to the GC.</p>